Monday, April 28, 2008

Here's the re-do sample weaving I did for the Sheep to Shawl. This is the pattern I thought I wanted when I did some sampling a couple months ago, so this time I decided to weave a shawl in this pattern instead of a little sample.

The yarn is merino DK from Knitpicks, dyed by me, warp set at 8 epi, weft beaten to 8 ppi. The pattern is one I came up with on WinWeave.

Unfortunately, I thought I dyed three skeins for the weft, but I only did two. I had to stop weaving earlier than I would have liked, and the shawl is a bit short. It was 24.75" in the reed, fresh off the loom it measured 22" x 66", and after wet finishing it measures 19" x 58".

It's a lovely soft, thick fabric, though, and since it's heavier than I like for a shawl and too short anyway, it may be transformed into a pillow.

However. After I finished weaving the shawl, I decided to fiddle with the tieup in WinWeave, and came up with this pattern.

Subtly different. I wove off the rest of the warp with this tieup, and like it better than the original. This is what the Fair shawl will be.

And just to show you what a difference wet finishing makes, here's a before and after. I cut the sample in half, zigzagged the cut edges and fell lines, and threw one in the washing machine with the shawl.

The left half is straight off the loom. It's a bit loose and feels somewhat floppy. Soft, but not terrible stable. The right hand half is after one minute of agitation in a soapy wash and one minute agitation in the rinse. The weave locks together, the yarn poufs, and it's a super soft, stable fabric.